Friday, February 28, 2014

Somewhere, in a land, far far away... lived a young lady that yearned for sunlight and warmth that wasn't generated from her heating system or enormous cat. This lady had an affinity for color, weird music and waffle fries. She took on a nail art monthly challenge, and succeeded. Mostly. This is Gawkish Polish.

Ok, enough of that, ha! I made it to the last prompt. And almost mostly on time too! Stupid Wisconsin trip that wasn't even fun anyways, throwing off my groove. (Did anyone elese just picture the Emperors New Groove in their heads? No, just me? Ok, moving on)

This is only my second attempt at a galaxy manicure. I loved my first one, although I did teo different looks for that one. On my left hand, I had placed star specks and little starbursts. On my right, I just left it without. And loved it way more. So I didn't want to mess with that junk this time, and wanted to keep it simple and stunning.

I useda super dark navy blue base and then I sponged on several colors to make the stary look. I used a purple, a shimmery teal, a light powder blue and bright yellow. Remember that polish that I used for the fake it Galaxy Nails? I put a super light layer of that on top.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I would like to experiment with different colors schemes though for my next attempt. Like green, purple and yellow. Or something, I dunno.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I feel like this cue was actually pretty intimidating for me, as I don't typically have simple or plain nails. That's for boring folks. Uncreative peoples. I like color. And sparkles. And weird crap on my nails.

But there was a time... when I was still a nail biter. I was like, April, you are a professional woman, you need professional nails. I got acrylics put on. I loved those silly pearl white tips. Then I was like, they are trimming my real nail from under this. Can I just grow it out? So I had them removed. And I got gel manicures. Again, I loved a french tip. Because that's what professional women get. Then I got tired of that junk, and after watching them do my nails so often I got the techniques down. Hey, I'm artsy-fartsy... I can do that! It was all over by then.

So that was a long story for these simple french tips. I used OPI Alpine Snow, and then used my clean up brush to make the edge crisp. Over top I did 2 coats of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble to give it a softer look.

This is pretty much freaking me out. I want to add glitter. Or dots. Or a lady halfway immersed in popcorn.

I'm sure this will last a whole entire day before I get so twitchy that I either pick it off or slop some glittah on it. =)

Sometimes simple is nice. Or it drives you crazy. Meh! Also, I'm trying out the new lightbox that the hubs made for me... I'm trying to figure out the lighting, and so let me know your thoughts. I think I prefer my outdoor shots only because my hands are so not this red!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

I'm failing this "I have a life " challenge... we went to Wisconsin this weekend for a beer festival and well, we had a terrible time! I don't follow basketball at all. I'm a football girl only, and so apparently, Wisconsin was playing us on Saturday in Iowa, and I decided to wear my Iowa stocking cap to the festival since it was outside and I was cold. Big mistake. People were totally snubbing us, and saying really mean things as we walked by, etc. I knew that Wisconsin fans are pretty hard core, but I was so disappointed and I felt cheated out of a fun weekend. Oh well, I digress.

So, I'm going to be late, and I did this fun number to make up for Day 23, Animal Print. Let me tell you, I'm not a fan of animal print... and don't kill me, but I just think of it as an older woman's pattern. Its just not my thing. Well, I was running out of daylight and needed to pick something, so I whipped this up.

The nude is my new standby, Zoya Taylor; and the coral is another new favorite, OPI Live. Love. Carnival. Sponged on for gradient, and then the leopard spots along the side.

I'm really shocked, I kind of like this. And if anyone knows where I probably saw something similar and recreated, let me know so I can give them proper credit. I searched and couldn't find anything, so I'm not sure!

Thanks for checking this out... "simple" is the cue for the 25th, which I will also be late for. ;)

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Guess what? It was so warm the past two days! Like, when it broke 40 degrees, I thought that I would break out the shorts, open the windows and get a tan. Ok, not really, but it was close.

So just in time for the warmer weather, today's prompt is flowers! I picked up this beauty from Sally's the other day, when Orly was on sale. Its a beautiful pale blue milky base with light blue micro glitter, copper glitter and holographic glitter. I knew I wanted to use this as the base, so I then put coral roses on top.

So this is Milky Way by Orly, and Live. Love. Carnival from OPI. Please forgive me for all the pictures, but I was having too much fun and couldn't decide which ones to keep or toss. I was ad though that I could barely capture the holo glitter.

Milky Way was a little difficult to use. The formula was really thick and gloopy. I had to add quite a bit of thinner to it before I could use it well.

I'd love to hear you thoughts... I definitely feel so girly in this mani, ha!

Monday, February 17, 2014

No, this is not a post about hunky shirtless boys. We're talking nail studs here. I am on the fence with studs. They kind of tweak me out, the texture is a little weird. I find myself rubbing them all day and then the color rubs off.

I'm on day 3 of the Jamberry wrap that I posted about on Saturday. It's still holding strong, so I wanted to add on to that.

I searched all over to see if I could glue on a stud on top of the wrap. I heard stories how you can't topcoat wraps because they would shrink and wrinkle. Guess what... it worked. I put a thin coat of Seche Vite, placed the stud, and waited for it to dry placing another coat of Seche on top.

Side note, did you know that you can paint your studs? I painted that boy blue. The glitter on my thumb is Sephora X TNT, which is a random shape matte blue glitter. Love it. My nude base is Zoya Taylor, and the blue is Nails, inc Baker Street.

Whatcha think about this one? I like how it's trendy, but for some reason it still looks professional. Sometimes I feel a little weird with my crazier manis, but me likey this one.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Hey everyone! Do you all have as much cabin fever as I do right now? I'm about 2 days from going completely nutballs. I swear if I can't get outside and jog on the bike path soon I just might give up and have cake for breakfast,
lunch and dinner.

I've got a fun and unique look to share with you all today. I was recently approached by a client that I plan events with, who is a Jamberry consultant. I've never been able to wear nail decals, because I have the hands of an 8 year old. Even the pinky decals wouldn't fit my thumb. Jill urged me to try these and I'm pretty impressed! The two designs that she sent were small enough to fit my ring finger. There is a slight visible edge on the nail, but nothing major. Application was easy, the instructions were simple. Prep the nail, and warm up the strip and place on the nail. Press it down, and then trim the edge. File the edge in a downward motion and then heat it back up using your hairdryer. Trim the little edges underneath and boom----polish.

This looks all pixilated up close, but from a far, it just looks like I was super awesome using striping tape!

The strips were long enough that I was able to cut into 2 pieces, so these would last a pretty long time and get more for your money. Actually, with what I trimmed off, I could have gotten 3 uses per strip and used the trimmings as accents.

I loved this blue stripe piece, so I paired it with a nautical theme manicure. I so love anything nautical, so this hopefully gets me out of my winter funk. Do you like that yellow? It's from the new OPI Brazil collection. Its I Just Can't Cope-acabana. I'm always on the hunt for golen yellow polishes for my Hawkeye manis in the fall.

Thoughts? I like the idea of using these strips as accent nails, because I just can't handle the same print look on every nail. If you want to take a look at Jamberry, Jill has a special on her site for buy 3, get 1 free. You can check it out here.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of the weekend
April

*These polish strips were provided to me for my honest opinion and review. I am in no way affiliated with Jamberry or their products.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Sorry for the delay in posts, guys. I was loving my Olympic nails way too much to follow the Californails February challenge exactly. Maybe I should have used pastel colors for the Olympic look? ;)

So, because I suck and I want to get back on track, you get two posts today!

First is day 11, pastels. I think maybe the reasoning behind this was like a box of candy hearts, because I don't really associate pastels with February. Regardless, here's the look I went with.

Hey, can I get some props here because this is my right or Cinderella hand? Lol, I pretty much liked it better than my left. Look at how good my middle finger came back from that massive break in December!

I used several pastel toned colors, and then stamped on top with Pueen plate #27. I topped it all off with a matte finish topcoat. In hindsight, I should have used a different plate. The hearts that were solid look like a big smeary smush. I call these Laced up Easter Eggs. Lol

Ok, mani number 2. This one is for day 14, Match OOTD. So it's no secret, I plan ahead, do my nails at night and then take pics in the morning. Tonight I had to pick out what I'm wearing for tomorrow and hope that I still feel like it in the morning! I purchased this sweater last season at Old Navy, and I love it. I love mint, and love polka dots. Sweater full of win.

The mint here is from Essie's new Spring collection, Fashion Playground. The grey is OPI'S Suzy Takes the Wheel. I did the grey with mint dots on 3 of my nails, and the inside cuff look with the opposite colors. I like it, you can't go wrong with this color combination. Simple, but that's ok because I'm tired of wearing Valentine's Day looks!! (Bonus, I looked up on Essie's website for more info on Fashion Playground and couldn't find anything... it's that new! Boom! We never get sneak peeks in Iowa!)

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

I got the best compliment yesterday on my Olympic nails- Nail Art Magazine "hearted" my pics on Instagram! !!!! I about died. So, because I was really enjoying being in the Olympic mood, I wanted to keep those on for a bit longer and therefore I am behind in the #nailartfeb challenge. No worries though!

The prompt for the 9th is hearts. Meh... I'm not a very mushy girl, so I'm not an "isn't this cute how much I love everything and everyone" displayer of affection. Hearts just aren't my thing. But, I wanted to give it the good ole try.

So, no one laugh. I tried to do the negative space look. Fail. Utter fail. I think I had too much polish on to try to remove it was a nightmare, and my heart was sloppy. But by that time of night inwas over it. I'll reluctantly try it again.

Colors used here are my new Orly Pink Waterfall (which is so close to a radiant orchid shade that I got on clearance at Ulta!!!), Ciate Pepperminty, and Essie Licorice. I wanted a candy hearts look without doing candy hearts. Does that make sense? Lol.

Thoughts? Not my favorite. I was mad that I had to do these last night, because the Olympics were on, and we just recently dumped our cable and satellite television service. We're strictly streaming or using bunny ears to watch TV. our TV upstairs and in the kitchen are so old that we need to buy converter boxes or new TVs. So I was Olympic-less upstairs at my polish station. Boo.

And one last pic, my hubs completed my nail polish racks, so now I have room to grow! I'm only at about 240ish bottles, which doesn't look like so many when on the wall! Need. More. Polish. Ha.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

So it's snowing again. And I figured I might as well spend my time locked in the house on a new mani. Did anyone watch the opening ceremonies last night? I honestly was so disappointed! I was pretty bored actually. The floor however, with the projection system was amazing.

Here's a quick mani I did, by first painting my nails white, and then sponged on a super light blue on the tips. I added hand painted elements such as a gold medal, the sochi mountains, an Olympic flame logo I found somewhere and an American flag, for obvious reasons, lol.

I'm super impressed with how these turned out. Especially the mountains. If you're curious what's on my right hand, I just did color blocks of the 5 Olympic colors.

On another note, I'm also totally obsessed with the hotel stories of Sochi. Since I work in the hospitality industry, I hear these and think well, at least we have doors that lock / unlock and floors.

Friday, February 7, 2014

I'm so excited. For reals. I am so I busy the first week of the month that the first weekend is like chocolate coated. With sprinkles.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this prompt, which is XOXO. Of course I needed it to be slightly different, so I did an abstract XOXO.

The textured polish here is L'Oreal Too Dimensional on top of one of my faves, OPI'S Do You Lilac It? The pink is Essie's The Girls Are Out. I taped off the criss cross, or the X's, and then I free handed the O's.

Funny story. I did this pretty late last night, and I turned on the comedy station on Pandora for background sound. I do NOT recommend doing this. You should see my right hand. You can see every move where I laughed. It looks like my 8 year old niece painted them.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Happy Tuesday chickadees. Today I have the second prompt for the February nail art challenge. Polka Dots!!! I again wanted to do something in somewhat of a Valentines theme, but not overly so.

I used OPI Sweetheart for the pink, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the "white". The white has Essie's Pure Pearlfection on top to give it a touch of shimmer. Speckle on top a bunch of girly dots, and Ding! Polka spotted mani.

Know what these remind me of? Those eyeball tests that you have to see the number in the dots.

That's all I've got. Unless you want to hear that we're getting more snow tomorrow. Again. I'm never going to see the sun.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

I might be crazy. But I am so tired of being cooped up indoors I think I AM crazy. I post all of my pictures on Instagram as well as on here, and one of the users I follow, Californails, posted this February challenge.

I like these new "I have a life" challenges that I've been seeing all over IG. I kind of miss the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge, mainly because sometimes it is so nice to have a promt for the day, and not have to come up with something from scratch! (I totally need this I have a life list!!) However, it is really great to not have to freak out about doing a different look every day, like the 31 Day is.

So, since today is the 1st of February, the prompt is Glitter. I wanted to start throwing out some Valentine style looks early so some of you get some easy ideas.

I needed a red glitter polish for something, I can't recall what it was, but I picked up Ruby Pumps from China Glaze because it was so pretty in the bottle. I never used it.

So, since that polish is a jelly with red micro glitter, I used that overtop Seche Vite Signature to get a rich red color and the glitter that I'm supposed to do for today! The actual glitter on my ring finger is from the Minnie Mouse collection that OPI did awhile back, Minnie Style. Finish it all with a dainty white heart, and done!

Such an easy look, but it sure screamed Valentine's Day!

Off to glare at the 4+ inchees of snow we got overnight. I'm after you, Snowmeiser. We used to be friends, but now I want to pretty much punch you in the face. Thanks for ruining my weekend, jerk! :)

About Me

I started getting hooked on nail polish back in high school. Then I entered real life and chewed my nails down to stubs. After getting a professional job, I wanted to be presentable and so I got acrylics on to train the bites. Now I'm fully my own nails, and use my creativity to show my personality through nail polish. And because I have to, disclaimer here is that the opinions expressed here are strictly my own and not that of my employer or other companies.